So Happy Together
by bosswoman88
Summary: a short fun little Epilogue to ARWT and TTTB, Deacon and Rayna five years into the future...


This is a short little epilogue to ARWT and TTTB. Because we all want to imagine that they really do live happily ever after…

**FIVE YEARS LATER…..**

Rayna watched from the doorway of the lake house, unable to hide her smile at the scene in front of her.

Maddie and Daphne sat on the top porch step, with their five year old brother Johnny between them, giving him a guitar lesson. His forehead crinkled intensely under a mop of dark hair as he tried to finger the right notes on the 3/4-sized guitar in his hands.

"Like this, Maddie?"

"You got it, Johnny," Maddie said encouraging. "Just like that."

He looked up beaming at his two big sisters, his blue eyes proud.

_Time goes so fast,_ Rayna thought wistfully as she watched them.

Maddie had started her first year at Vanderbilt this fall, and Daphne was on the way to earning a driver's license. Grown up in the blink of an eye.

Then again, it wasn't like she had didn't have enough to keep her busy, with H65 and Deacon's career both hitting their highest points ever, and these other two runnin' around.

She took a few steps and reached down to tustle Johnny's hair. "Sounds great. Just like your daddy."

"Aw, Mama," he muttered indignantly. "I'm tryin to play."

Daphne hid a snicker behind her hand. "You got that right, Mom." She picked up her own guitar leaning against the railing and picked out a little tune.

With a sigh and a smile, Rayna crossed the porch to the hammock on the other end.

Deacon was laying there, eyes closed and one hand over his head, the other protectively wrapped around their two year old daughter Lucy, who was deep in slumber against his side, tangled red-gold curls framing her face.  
He opened his eyes and seeing her standing there, gave her a lazy smile. His blue eyes beckoned her. "Oh come on now," he teased softly. "Just one more?"

She laughed. Carefully as not to disturb Luce, she eased into the hammock on the other side of him and laid her head on his shoulder. "I think we've got more than enough with the four right here to keep us busy, Babe." She'd never imagined starting all over this late in her life, but fate had had other ideas. Now she couldn't imagine every day without them. Chaos mixed with the perfect amount of infectious laughter. There was no better way to describe it.

"I know," he murmured in her ear. "But I kinda liked making 'em with you. I think we're pretty good at it."

Deacon been elated and scared to death at the same time when Rayna had told him she was pregnant with Johnny just a few months after their wedding. Sure, they'd decided to let fate decide the cards on having more kids, but it was still a stunner. He was terrified. Starting with a teenager was one thing, someone handing him a helpless baby and demanding he keep it alive was completely another. But by the time Lucy arrived by happy accident a few years later, he had it all figured out. More than one hit song in the last five years had been written with a little head asleep on his chest.

What touched Rayna the most was how present he was with all four of their children, every day. _You show me what to do, Ray_, he had said the day Johnny was born, staring down at their newborn son in his arms with tears in his eyes, _and I'll do it_. _I want to be there. For everything. I don't want to miss a thing this time. _ He'd never let her down in that promise, not even once. The sight of such a stoic man changing diapers and giving baths never failed to melt her heart. Listening to him read to them, sing to them, teach them right and wrong. Watching him get to be a daddy from the beginning and at the same time try to give his grown up daughters advice on the ways of the world: she loved him more than she'd ever thought possible.

"We _are_ pretty good at it," she laughed softly. "Aren't we? God, I love you. And this little family we've got going on here."

"Love you too, sweetheart."

Maddie didn't even look up from the lesson book she was explaining to Johnny. "We can still here you over here…jeez…"

Daphne rolled her eyes. "At least you get to go back to your dorm on Monday," she said to her sister pointedly. "I have to listen to this stuff _all the time_."

Both of their parents couldn't hold back a smile at that one.

Deacon leaned down and kissed Rayna's forehead. "Happy five year anniversary, Darlin. We probably should have done something more exciting than coming up here, sorry. I didn't even have time to get you more than flowers."

She smiled, and shook her head. "Don't you know?" She said. "I've got everything I'll ever need right here, Deacon. Two arms around me…."

_heaven to ground me, and a family that always calls me home…_


End file.
